On Image, China Did Obama No Favors

There’s a good reason why President Obama, one of the world’s great communicators, managed to appear inaccessible – almost wooden — on his visit to China.

Associated Press

Obama and Wen in a slightly unscripted moment

That’s how many Chinese leaders come across, too. The advisors who nurture the public image of top officials in the Chinese politburo weren’t about to let their charges be upstaged.

Obama’s aides were particularly disappointed that China rebuffed their request to allow his Town Hall meeting with students in Shanghai to be broadcast live on national TV. (It ended up playing on Shanghai TV, and Xinhua published a live transcript).

Beijing media insiders offer a variety of explanations for this outcome.

• They didn’t want Obama to appear more open and accessible than Chinese leaders;

• They didn’t want to encourage “Obamania”.

• Nobody does Town Halls in China. Why make such a public concession to the Americans?

• Who knows what Obama might say on live TV?

Despite the dawning of the Internet age – or perhaps because of it – China’s leaders are more heavily managed in front of the press than ever before. Former Premier Zhu Rongji was so proud of his ability to think on his feet and deliver memorable one-liners that he’s put out a book containing transcripts of his press conferences. It’s become a best-seller in China.

“Prepare 100 coffins,” Zhu is famously said to have joked to aides as he pushed through unpopular economic reforms a decade ago. “Ninety-nine for my enemies, and one for me.”

Certainly, senior Chinese leaders have never been less accessible to the foreign media. David Chipp, the former Reuters Beijing bureau chief who arrived in 1956, loved to regale audiences with the story of how he accidentally stepped backward onto Chairman Mao’s toe. Spinning around, he found himself face-to-face with the “Great Helmsman”. He was forgiven.

Longtime members of the foreign press corps in Beijing remember the days when they would be invited to the airport to witness the departure of senior leaders on foreign visits. Politburo members would be there, and occasionally would exchange a word or two with reporters.

These days, the Chinese leadership operates through consensus. Prominent displays of individualism are risky, as are unscripted engagements with the foreign media.

The premier’s annual press conference following the National People’s Congress is one of the few chances the media have to question him.

There have been grumblings from the travelling Obama White House press corps that the president hasn’t given a single proper news conference during his current swing through Asia. On the other hand, Chinese President Hu Jintao has never sat down for an interview with the U.S. media as head of state.

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